Annals of the American Thoracic Society
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The implementation of team-based care models in residency programs is one method to improve patient and provider outpatient satisfaction. However, to our knowledge, this has not yet been studied in fellowship programs. ⋯ The Fellow of the Day role was successfully implemented at our institution with multiple benefits, not only to fellows but also to patients, medical students, and supervising faculty. Our education committee has recommended continuation of the role in our fellowship program.
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Critical thinking, the capacity to be deliberate about thinking, is increasingly the focus of undergraduate medical education, but is not commonly addressed in graduate medical education. Without critical thinking, physicians, and particularly residents, are prone to cognitive errors, which can lead to diagnostic errors, especially in a high-stakes environment such as the intensive care unit. ⋯ The five strategies are: make the thinking process explicit by helping learners understand that the brain uses two cognitive processes: type 1, an intuitive pattern-recognizing process, and type 2, an analytic process; discuss cognitive biases, such as premature closure, and teach residents to minimize biases by expressing uncertainty and keeping differentials broad; model and teach inductive reasoning by utilizing concept and mechanism maps and explicitly teach how this reasoning differs from the more commonly used hypothetico-deductive reasoning; use questions to stimulate critical thinking: "how" or "why" questions can be used to coach trainees and to uncover their thought processes; and assess and provide feedback on learner's critical thinking. We believe these five strategies provide practical approaches for teaching critical thinking in the intensive care unit.
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Wellness is critical to physicians in training and the general physician workforce. At present, physicians in general and especially intensive care unit physicians are experiencing high rates of depression and burnout. The prevalence of burnout is greatest in resident and fellow trainees. ⋯ Additional steps to implement a trainee wellness program include the following: (1) establish support from institutional and divisional leadership; (2) create a wellness committee; (3) perform a needs assessment; (4) assess trainee wellness and burnout; (5) perform targeted interventions; and (6) routinely reassess trainee wellness and burnout. More research is needed to identify and refine strategies that improve wellness and decrease burnout among physicians and trainees. As a community, we must take on the challenge of improving wellness among physicians for the benefit of our trainees, ourselves, and our patients.